COMBINE COLORANTS OF TARTRAZINE AND ERYTHROSINE INDUCE EXPRESSION OF PRO-INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES IN KIDNEY INJURY: INVOLVEMENT OF INTERLUKIN 1-? (IL-1?), INTERLUKIN 1-? (IL-1?) GENES AS KIDNEY FUNCTIONS INDICES

Ibitoroko Maureen George- Opuda, *Adebayo Olugbenga Adegoke, Ifeanyichukwu Wopara,
Fortune Manuchim Orluwene and Vivian Obiageri Ekwusa

ABSTRACT

Tartrazine and Erythrosine are synthetic food colorants widely used in food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries with less attention on their toxic effects. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of Tartrazine and Erythrosine in the expression of Interlukin-1alpha gene (IL-1α) and Interlukin-1beta gene (IL-1β genes) in the kidneys of male wister rats. Twenty- five male wister rats divided into five groups of five rats each were administered 2.5mg/kgb.wt, 5mg/kgb.wt, 10mg/kgb.wt, and 20mg/kgb.wt of mixture of tartrazine and erythrosine respectively while Group 1 served as the control and was treated with only water and feed for 23 days. The Kidneys were harvested and preserved in an Eppendorf tube containing trizol was used to measure the expression of Interlukin 1-α gene and Interlukin 1-β gene, using modified RNA snap kit method. The result revealed an up regulation of IL-1α gene expression in groups treated with 2.5mg, 5mg, and 10mg but a down regulation in group treated with 20mg when compared with the control. Also the expression of IL-1β gene were highly up regulated at all doses when compared with the control. This implies that constant ingestion of these synthetic food colorants can increase expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in kidney as shown by upregulation of the genes.

Keywords: Tartrazine, Erythrosine, Interlukin-1alpha gene, Interlukin-1beta gene, Urea.